American songwriters ffs. Get upset about the right things 
Englishman
You’re right. No doubt about it.
Oops! No Jimmy Webb? No Neil Young? No Aimee Mann? etc etc
@Eonwe can I borrow those reading glasses?
Although I stand by my statement that it’s a bullshit list. I’ll just substitute Rhett Miller for Thompson.
Try again.
. . .
Well, I’ll be!
Walter Becker is dead but Donald Fagan is still alive and I’d put Steely Dan lyrics up against anybody’s.
Carly Simon was the Noel Coward of her era. She’s mostly forgotten but her songs were jewels of short stories.
David Byrne’s lyrics were the necessary complement to the quirky music, both deceptively deeper than at first blush.
Were Joni Mitchell and Neil Young left off because they were born in Canada? Bernie Taupin moved to America 50 years ago and like the other two are now American citizens. Was eligibility for President the criterion?
Plus he frequently wrote the music as well.
Any list of songwriters that doesn’t include Neil Young or Joni Mitchell is worthless.
ETA: Doh! it’s american songwriters.
Almost certainly
…
Two other omissions mentioned elsewhere: Neil Diamond and James Taylor.
I don’t like either one, but I recognize them as great songwriters. Better than Young Thug? (I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Young Thug song)
I’m going to put James McMurtry out there–truly one of the best songwriters of Americana. I give you Choctaw Bingo among many, many others.
I’ve heard of nine of those thirty. And for several of them that’s it – I recognise the name, but couldn’t tell you a single song they’ve written or performed.
Both Joni and Neil are American citizens. That doesn’t count?
mmm
Apparently not, because let’s face it, they’re better songwriters than some of the folks on the list. I like Chic, but Nile Rogers isn’t a better songwriter than Neil Young (who I don’t like, but I recognize as a master songwriter) or Joni Mitchell.
A couple of weeks ago I was looking at Diane Warren songs (she’s on the list). I had never heard of her, but I like a lot of songs she wrote. I guess she is a recently discovered favorite.
No Mike Stoller.
I wonder who would have gotten bumped if Neil Sedaka and Brian Wilson hadn’t died recently.
As a follow up, the NY Times asked some artist to choose their favorites. Here’s a gift link (I only have 7 left, so enjoy it!).
I mean, like I said upthread, that’s the kind of sentiment from any ranking songs/bands/songrwriters list I’ve ever seen. Some people are just not going to make the cut for whatever arbitrary reason. When making a list, you often want to make a list that has diversity of songwriters, genres, include perhaps a dark horse or two (like my favorite Stephin Merritt), and there’s gonna be slews of perfectly defensible choices left off the list. It’s just kind of how it has to work out. So far as I can tell, Rhett Miller wasn’t even mentioned by any of the “music industry leaders” polled in the link above. (I had to look up who he is – I do recognize the band The Old 97s.) You can easily make a Pitchfork-style list of 30 living songwriters arguably better than anyone on this list if you wanted to, but less than 1% of the population would have heard of them. There’s just too much to choose from to make anything like a definitive top 30 or top anything list when it comes to art.
Overall, I think this is a reasonable list, but give me another Top 30 with completely different artists on it, and I’d probably think it’s reasonable, too.
Motown founder Berry Gordy’s list named some major omissions:
Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff - Philadelphia International house songwriters for the O’Jays, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Lou Rawls, and many more.
Mike Stoller – at age 93, the living half of the Leiber & Stoller songwriting team (Elvis Presley, The Drifters, Ben E. King, and loads more).
Jimmy Webb – “The Kid” at age 79. Who didn’t he write for?